Young Adult

Contents

Young adult literature is similar to children's literature, except that the protagonists and intended audience are typically teenagers instead of younger children. The stories are not designed to be read aloud by parents, but are usually stories that teenagers can and would be interested in reading on their own. As such, they are more mature than children's literature, and can deal with controversial themes such as sex, relationships, depression, suicide, bullying, anorexia and rebellion.

History

#yasaves

A Wall Street Journal article entitled Darkness Too Visible criticised YA as being 'rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity'. The reaction within the YA community trended worldwide on twitter under #yasaves. The rebuttals included the argument that real life can be dark, and that fiction can help teens with little life-experience deal with difficult situations, and that YA saves, because YA understands[1].

Themes

Like children's literature, YA can be morality tales. They can also express frustration at authority, and as such often try to avoid any overt preaching.

Fantastical elements may feature prominently, such as works by authors such as Isobelle Carmody, Tamora Pierce, Eoin Colfer, R.L. Stine and J.K. Rowling.

However, there are also many stories in this genre that use realism and focus on growing up and relationships, like Judy Bloom's "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret" and John Marsden's "Letters from the inside". They may also discuss self-harm, depression, suicide, drug use, sexual abuse and many other controversial issues, targeted specifically at a teen audience that often interacts with these issues differently than other age groups.